Video: De Blasio Ambushed By Activist While Working Out In Cargo Shorts

Mayor de Blasio's gym routine is a long-picked over habit of his, one that I won't pick over any more than I have previously. Especially now that the questionable "motorcade to Park Slope every morning" tactic has given us this awkward 66 second video in which an activist asks the mayor if he read the Lippman Report's recommendations on closing Rikers Island.

In the video, shared by the #CLOSErikers campaign, an activist can be seen asking the mayor if he's read the report, and attempting to engage him in a debate about how the mayor actually plans to close the prison island.

De Blasio, working out in cargo shorts and wearing a belt for some reason, attempts to just go on with his stretching, repeatedly telling the activist who approached him that he's not at the gym to have a political discussion and that he'll talk to him outside. As the activist continues to press him on the details of the Lippman Report, de Blasio moves into a downward dog, attempting to escape the confrontation and find his bliss through yoga.

A press release from the #CLOSErikers campaign claims that de Blasio's plan to close Rikers leaves out "any commitment to police reform or city-level efforts to decriminalize some offenses or reform sentencing practices," unlike the Lippman Report. "What is missing from the Mayor’s plan says more about his priorities than what is included," said Theodore A. Moore, Lead Organizer at JustLeadershipUSA.

The mayor didn't take kindly to his stretching getting interrupted, telling reporters at a press conference that, "You don’t go into a private organization with a membership policy and violate the policy."

Mayor on YMCA disruption: "You don’t go into a private organization with a membership policy & violate the policy." https://t.co/9Klp8ruXsy

Pressed on his choice of gym attire, de Blasio waded into the debate over whether cargo shorts are in abomination or not, clearly choosing the wrong side of the issue (which I am allowed to criticize as the creator of what has been called the "Dave Coloncore" style).

"I'm here to go to the gym, damnit!" BdB jokingly defends cargo shorts at the gym. "They're comfortable, you can put stuff in the pockets."